


my lips are chapped and faded

by constellatns



Category: Trench - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Dreams vs. Reality, F/M, Mystery, Prophecy, itll be okay I promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2020-10-21 13:22:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20694221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constellatns/pseuds/constellatns
Summary: She won’t ever remember it, but the day Jenna found him the morning was dewy and the sky was pink. It was cold and crisp, winter would be there soon but not yet.She won’t ever remember those details though, she won’t recall how the birds sang and Clifford tried to join them like he always did, or how unusually early she woke so the camp was quiet.Jenna won’t ever remember because that very same, pleasant morning she found Tyler lying right outside the camp, dead.--or: tyler is returned to the banditos a bit too late





	1. DAY 1

**Author's Note:**

> if you're looking for someone to blame, blame the boys for covering cancer three years ago.  
or me for listening to it and thinking "hey what if..."
> 
> this is set in the trench universe, I have taken some liberties w/ various headcanons so buckle up, buttercups

**DAY 1**

**5:24 AM**

She won’t ever remember it, but the day Jenna found him the morning was dewy and the sky was pink. It was cold and crisp, winter would be there soon but not yet. 

She won’t ever remember those details though, she won’t recall how the birds sang and Clifford tried to join them like he always did, or how unusually early she woke so the camp was quiet. 

Jenna won’t ever remember because that very same, pleasant morning she found Tyler lying right outside the camp, dead. 

She first saw him right when she reached the edge of camp, she was checking the perimeter since she was the first awake. At first she didn’t know it was him. It was just a body holding something yellow. 

When Jenna got closer, she stopped breathing. Her hand flew to her mouth and she shook her head because,  _ no. No that isn’t Tyler. Why would he be—No.  _

Jenna moves closer to the body. It is Tyler. Still and lifeless, pale-lipped Tyler. He is holding yellow flowers, all the ones from his desk she’s sure. 

Some rational part of her brain took over for a second before she reacted fully.  _ Why is he here? He couldn’t have died right outside. If he died in city who brought him here?  _

There’s a paper pinned to his chest, Jenna doesn’t read it before the tears find her. 

She collapses. All her exteriors that she’s built up being a leader fall and it’s just Jenna, crying over Tyler’s body. 

She isn’t sure how much time passes before someone else wakes and hears her. It's another bandito, first they approach her tentatively and then when they realize it’s Jenna, they run to Josh’s tent. 

Josh runs to the scene, which has gathered a few more audience members, he moves past them to get to Jenna. When Josh is standing behind her, he recognizes the body. 

Full stop. The world tilts on its axis.

Josh feels like his heart is ripped out of his chest. 

Josh feels himself hurtling toward some great darkness at break-neck speed.

Josh feels the Banditos watching, he sees Jenna still crumbled, he feels her sadness. Josh  _ feels, Josh feels, Josh feels.  _

He feels so much, after a second he can’t feel at all. 

Josh can’t afford act like the ground is falling out from under him, now, with the whole camp standing behind him with bated breath 

( _ but he feels it anyway)  _

He kneels down next to Jenna, the dewy grass soaks his knees. Josh places a hand on her back, she skips a breath and then turns to him. 

Her face is splotchy and red, her cheeks are soaked with tears. Josh wishes he could say he’s never seen her like this, but it had been a long time since he had. 

Jenna shakes her head then dives toward Josh. He catches her and she sobs into his shoulder. 

Josh is left to stare at Tyler’s still face. 

He closes his eyes. 

..

Some banditos bring a stretcher and lift Tyler onto it. The rest of camp forms two lines facing each other, just like they do for the ritual when a newcomer arrives at camp. 

Tears burn Josh’s eyes as he and Jenna follow the stretcher to the med tent. Jenna grabs his hand tightly. 

Once they set Tyler down on a bed, Beatrice, the medic, starts to check him over. 

“I’m gonna bring this to communications. There might be a code or something,” Josh says holding the paper that had been pinned to Tyler’s shirt. 

He wasn’t sure that was true, all it said was 

_ Don’t let him be gone _

in odd handwriting, definitely not Tyler’s. 

But it was still worth a look. Anything to get away from this, is what Josh doesn’t say. 

Jenna looks hesitant to have him leave, but if Josh is here another second he thinks he’ll throw up. She must see that, Jenna nods. 

She turns back to Tyler, “What are we gonna do, Josh?” Jenna breathes out. 

He doesn’t know. 

Josh leaves the tent. 

**6:17 AM**

Debby catches him later as he’s on his way out of the communications tent. 

“Hey, hey,” Josh almost runs her over, walking so quickly away, to go  _ anywhere _ . Debby has both hands braced on his arms. “ _ Josh _ ,” she puts a hand on his cheek. 

The world slows down for a second as he breathes evenly and looks at her. 

It’s the first even breath he’s taken since this morning. 

She doesn’t look like she’s cried recently, if she did she hid it well. Josh is thankful for her strength, even though it’s probably as fake as his is. But if Debby was crying, Josh wouldn’t be able to hold himself together any longer. 

He covers Debby’s hand on his face with his own and closes his eyes for a moment. 

“I have to go,” he tells her. 

He wants to tell her there’s an awful feeling at the bottom of his stomach like at any minute he might have a panic attack, he wants to thank her for being here so suddenly, he wants to just stop everything and sit and cry and  _ cry  _ in her arms. 

She nods. “I know.” 

They don’t move for a moment and then Josh says, “I love you.” 

They are both thinking of Jenna in that tent now. 

“I love you, too.” 

Josh leaves Debby and walks toward the old burned car. He jumps on it and the Banditos standing near it turn to him. He calls them all closer and soon all of the camp not currently occupied is waiting for him to start speaking. They are all bleary-eyed and tired looking, everyone was up too early due to the morning’s events. 

Josh thinks of when they went to save Tyler and he came back and gave a speech from where Josh was standing now. 

He feels so dreadfully like an imposter,  _ how dare he stand in Tyler’s place.  _

It was like the first days after Tyler had been recaptured by Dema, when Josh was learning to be the sole leader. It felt a lot like betrayal then, too. 

He’s trying not to think about that now. 

“Earlier this morning Jenna found Tyler outside camp. He is in the med tent now, Beatrice is checking him out. But it looked like—” Josh has to stop before he chokes up, “it looks like he is dead.” The words hit his chest like bricks. Heavy silence spreads over the banditos, “We don’t know why he was brought back here or by who. We don’t know how he died. He had a piece of paper pinned to chest that said ‘Don’t let him be gone’. This a time for mourning. So if you need to cry, cry. If you are angry, be angry, but lean on each other. Things like this are used in City to keep you there, don’t let this take you back. So mourn for a day then tomorrow, when the sun rises, get up and try again. That is what Tyler wants, that’s all he ever wanted, guys. For the sun to rise, for you all to move on and live on. We are his legacy. So live on.” 

Someone from the crowd calls out “Sahlo folina.” 

Josh calls back, “Sahlo folina,” and hops off the car. 

—

  
  


So here’s the thing about death: you don’t get to decide what happens after. 

Tyler opens his eyes and he sees a bright light, then it focuses and he is in a house, or maybe it’s just a room, it’s sort of hard to tell. There’s a table and two chairs, one of them is occupied, there aren’t very many other identifying factors other than pictures on a wall and the strong feeling that Tyler has been here before. 

It was like it was the  _ idea  _ of a room struggling to be real, things fading in and out as he looked at and away from them. 

The older man, who occupies one of the chairs, sits idly and whittles a small piece of wood. The man has a square face and kind eyes. He also feels eerily familiar to Tyler. 

“Where am I?” Tyler says 

“Well that’s entirely up to you,” the older man responds. His voice sounds like worn time and hearty, coppery laughter. 

Tyler looks around the space, he still can’t quite pin it down, the scene continues to swim in and out of recognition in a milky haze. If he focused hard enough, for a second a wall with familiar wood paneling would appear or he’d hear other voices he could almost recognize farther away. 

“I think I’ve been here before,” he decides. 

“I bet you’re right.”

Tyler looks down at his hands, his body, it’s all there, but he can’t remember anything before he opened his eyes, “Am I dead?” 

“Do you feel dead?” The older man doesn’t look up from his whittling. 

Tyler doesn’t know what being dead would feel like, but he also can’t quite think of how it feels to be alive. “I think I’m somewhere in between.”

The older man lets out a deep breath, he motions to the extra chair, “Sit down, son.” Tyler does as he says, “You’ve always been so perceptive, quiet where your brothers and sister were loud. You said things that made us all turn our heads.” 

The memories the older man bring up don’t register with Tyler other than that they must be  _ true _ if he’s saying them. He watches the older man’s gaze at the wood, glasses sit low on the bridge of his nose as he peers down through them. 

“I’m afraid,” Tyler admits. 

“It’s a big, scary world. I’d be worried if you weren’t, especially after the day you’ve had,” the older man puts down his whittling again and looks at Tyler over his glasses, “Listen, Tyler, don’t let this scare you from going on and out into the world. So you had a fall and a big old scare to boot, but you got up, didn’t you?” Tyler’s nodding though he doesn’t remember any fall, “That’s right. You’re a brave, brave boy. There’s a lot of world for you to see, now get out there and see it.” He motions away from them and Tyler’s gaze follows his motion and when he looks back, the man and the table and the half-room are gone. 

Tyler is standing again, alone. 

—

  
  


**9:48 AM **

  
  


Beatrice’s brow furrows, Jenna notices. “What is it?”

It had been five hours since she found his body, though Jenna hardly realized. It all felt like an eternity without him, every breath eons from the next. 

“It’s just, I don’t see any signs of decay, anywhere. He’s not breathing, though. Feel him,” Jenna grabs his hand, “he doesn’t feel cool does he? I mean he shouldn’t be stone cold, maybe two degrees cooler by now, but you’d notice.”

“He feels normal,” Jenna says. 

Beatrice nods, checks her watch, “It’s been almost five hours, rigor mortis should be happening. But all his muscles feel fine, not stiff.”

“What does this mean?” 

“I don’t know. It’s like his body has hit the pause button, he’s not breathing but he hasn’t started decaying,” Beatrice says. “This shouldn’t be happening.” 

_ If he is really dead  _ is what she doesn’t say. 

Jenna looks at Tyler again, she touches a hand to his forehead, brushes the hair at the crown of his head. “Where are you, Tyler? Hm?” 

Half of her expects an answer, and is shocked when he doesn’t reply. This feeling of living without him sits like a rock in her stomach. 

“I’ll check him again in a couple hours, find me if you notice anything change, okay?” Beatrice tells her. Jenna nods and Beatrice leaves the tent. 

**12:27 PM**

Someone from communications finds Josh later when he’s sitting by the main fire, Jim lying by his feet. She rushes up to him holding some papers. Josh remembers her name is May, tape diagonally across her chest, short curly hair bouncing as she runs. 

“We might have found something,” May holds out the papers to him. Josh stands to see what she’s talking about. 

“So we compared the handwriting to the samples of the Bishops we have. Some samples have come from secret notes we’ve found, letters to Chosen, old Vialism texts, things like that. We have seven of the nine, were missing Sacarver and Nills. They don’t write much, if at all, so they weren’t really an option for this anyway. So when we compared the handwriting we saw that it was an almost exact match to Keons,” May shows him the phrase that was on Tyler’s shirt next to a few words and another phrase. It’s almost the exact same handwriting, and the phrase itself is also nearly the same. 

_ Please, don’t let him be lost. He is a good child.  _

“What is this from?” Josh points to the sample phrase. 

“Weird, right? It’s a secret message from Keons, one of our undercover messengers intercepted it from him, but they were told to send it to another messenger. The trail died after our guy,” May explains. 

“So Keons brings Tyler back to camp, pins a piece of paper to his shirt to let us know it’s him, and what? Why should we trust him? He’s a Bishop,” Josh asks. 

“I don’t know if we can. I mean, remember Clancy? He lured him back into Dema from camp. But if he did this maybe there is more to him, most of the messages we have from him don’t talk about rituals or cleansings like the other Bishops’ do. Maybe he sent someone to take Tyler back here to us.”

If May is right, Keons is running a game within Dema and has been for a long time, long enough for it to be strong enough to operate right under Nico’s nose, to get Tyler’s body out of the city. They haven’t spent a lot of time looking into Keons, too focused with Nico’s hold on Tyler and Nill’s ruthlessness, and maybe that’s exactly what he counts on: people overlooking him. 

You can get away with a lot, if people overlook you. 

Josh wonders why he hasn’t tried to help the Banditos more directly. Probably Nico’s close watch on Tyler, and therefore the Banditos. 

Though, as Josh thinks about it there have been a couple instances they should have been caught but they weren’t. 

Maybe it  _ was _ Keons. 

“Thanks May, you guys are doing great. It’s a hard day, take a break,” he says. She nods and hands him the papers and leaves him to the fire. 

Josh sits back down and stares at the papers again. It just makes him more confused. 

Jim sits up and puts his head on Josh’s leg. He smiles and pets Jim’s head. 

Jim has barely left Josh’s side today, he can tell something is wrong. Josh is grateful for it, it’s a steady reminder he isn’t alone, it helps him feel less like the sky is falling and his world is ending. 

—

The next thing Tyler sees are grey walls and neon. He concedes that the vision of the old man must have been a dream and he has woken up in City. But as he looks harder at it, it’s not his room, it’s somewhere more official. 

The scene is appearing more clearly than the old man did. He can nearly smell the mechanical air of the City in the room. Then the door opens and a large red cloaked figure is leading two men in all black with red armbands into the room. The two armbands hold another man by both his arms. 

The man being held is himself, Tyler realizes. The large red cloak is Nico. The two men are Chosen. 

He still doesn’t know what’s happening, but his stomach fills with dread, he can feel it all the way in his toes. 

Nico begins to speak, though Tyler doesn’t hear anything. The Tyler in front of him said something in response which earns him a hard jostle from the men. He felt pain in his knees when the vision-Tyler’s hit the ground. He couldn’t hear anything at all, he watches Nico’s lips move but can’t discern anything behind the veil. 

Recognition didn’t hit Tyler until Nico motioned the vision-Tyler to stand. 

He was watching his death. 

Nico continues to speak to vision-Tyler, it must be questions since vision-Tyler is responding. Though, Nico doesn’t like his answers it seems, he waves a hand and vision-Tyler grabs his stomach, Tyler feels the blow, too, and stumbles back. 

When vision-Tyler recovers, Nico speaks and vision-Tyler says something that looks defiant, all lifted chins and sneering lips. It’s the final straw, as Nico lifts both his hands, vision-Tyler lifts off his feet. Tyler watches the air leave his lungs, the color leave his face, he thinks he might vomit if you can do that when you’re dead. 

It’s all too much for him and he runs toward the door and throws it open. 

The room he enters looks the same as the one before and a second after he realizes this Nico and the Chosen who carry vision-Tyler march in just like they did before. 

He watches as the scene repeats itself and when vision-Tyler falls to his knees, Tyler shakes head and runs to the door, which somehow changed locations to be on the other side of the room. 

Tyler bursts through the door again and again doesn’t see any change in the room. He realizes that he  _ can  _ in fact hear something: the buzz of the neon in the middle of the room. 

Nico and the Chosen walk through the door again and Tyler runs out as soon as they all enter. 

He’s in the same room again, and runs to the door before Nico and even reach the doorknob. It’s the same room again, when he opens the door, there’s nowhere else for Tyler to go. There isn’t a window or vent or anything. He goes through the door again as the scene begins again, anything to stop himself from seeing the end of that. 

The sound of the neon grows louder and louder each time he enters a new room—or rather, the same room, again. 

Tyler loses count of how many times he runs through the door into the same room. It’s so many though, he’s panting now. He isn’t sure how it works out that he’s tired even though he’s not living. 

Before he can get to the door of the room he’s in Nico and the rest file in. 

He knows what will happen in front of him, but he also knows what will happen if he runs to the door. 

The neon buzz is so loud in his head, he wants to scream. 

Tyler stays this time, in the room where he dies. 

He watches himself fall to the floor, feels the blow to his stomach, and then Nico raises him off the ground. 

Tyler closes his eyes. As he does he is both watching the moment and experiencing it. His feet are planted on the floor a few feet away and lifted in the air. He is both getting his life drained and standing in between it and something else. 

The moment feels the same as it did then, terrifying and gut wrenching. The overwhelming feeling of  _ this can’t be it, can it?  _

Admittedly, Tyler imagined death a lot when he was in City. Even on some hard nights in Trench. 

He never imagined it would be like this. He never imagined he wouldn’t be ready for it. 

When Tyler opens his eyes, he’s somewhere else. 

—

  
  


**3:07 PM **

Josh calls all the leaders to the central tent that afternoon. Debby, Jenna, and Beatrice all stand around him. It feels so empty without Tyler there. 

They try their best to ignore it. 

Josh puts down the papers May gave him on the table, the other move closer to look at it. “Comms found this, it’s the note that was pinned to Tyler’s jacket. She says the handwriting here,” he points to the sample phrase, “is from Keons.” 

“It matches,” Debby says. He nods. 

“Like Keons the Bishop?” Beatrice asks. She wasn’t always at these meetings, usually too busy in the med tent, but today they needed her there. 

Josh nods again. “It’s possible he’s running his own rebel ring inside Dema.”

“Is there any other evidence to support that?” Debby asks. 

“Not yet, Comms is working on going through what they have and contacting the spies we have to dig deeper into it. But, I mean why else would he put  _ that, _ ” he motions toward the note from Tyler, “on his coat?” 

His voice felt pleading and nïave and not at all polished and leaderly. Debby knits her brows at him, Josh knew she heard that fact. He could tell she knew how badly he wanted it to be true. How badly he wanted any glimpse of an explanation. 

“It is strange. I can’t imagine Nico would just ask for his body to be brought here. If he did, I’d imagine the note wouldn’t say  _ that _ ,” Beatrice said. 

Josh was thankful for the support, mostly because it made him feel like he wasn’t losing his mind. 

“How would Keons even pull this off, I mean, smuggle a whole body out of the walls all the way here,  _ Tyler _ no less,” Debby said. She bit her lip, Josh knew she wanted it to be true as well, but she was having a harder time believing it. 

“I don’t know, he’d have to have a pretty large operation, I imagine it would have to include his Chosen and maybe even some of his citizens,” Josh says. 

“His citizens?” Beatrice asks. 

Josh shrugs, “If he is on our side, why would he torture the citizens like the other Bishops?”

“To keep up appearances. If this is true, he’s a double agent, he’ll have to do  _ something  _ so Nico wouldn’t be suspicious,” Beatrice says. “And why isn’t he helping  _ us  _ at all?” 

“Why don’t we ask the Banditos who were under Keons? Maybe that’s how some of them found their way out,” Debby offers. 

“Talking about the City is still hard for a lot of them, I don’t know how successful that would be,” Beatrice says. 

Josh sighs, “Well it is just a  _ theory  _ now but I don’t really have anything else—” 

“The flowers,” Jenna suddenly says. It’s a bit quiet but Josh still hears it. “The flowers in his hand. They’re yellow, from his escapes. Keons wouldn’t be able to see them. Double agent or not.”

Josh had forgotten about those. From the looks of the other two, so had they. 

“So it’s Keon’s handwriting, right? And the note isn’t a copy or anything?” Jenna asks. The whole room is captivated by her slow, quiet voice. He shakes his head, hands the note to her. It was written in pencil, not copied or printed. “Okay so it doesn’t make sense that the Banditos in City would use a handwritten note they intercepted form Keons instead of one of their own. So Josh is right, it’s safe to assume Keons is in on this. And he would not have known about the flowers because he can’t see them, so he had help. Either from one of ours or his. Also if the Banditos did this we would have known before he got to camp.” 

Josh nods along with the whole thing. He can’t help but smile a bit, reminded how grateful he is for Jenna: after this entire day, she’s still thinking more clearly than the rest of them. 

“Okay, so Keons is in on this, as far as we know. We just don’t know why,” Debby says. 

“There’s something else,” Beatrice says like she’s remembering something. “I’ve been monitoring Tyler throughout the day. And it’s been almost ten hours and he hasn’t shown any signs of decay.” Josh’s eyes flick to Jenna, she seems to be stomaching all this talk about Tyler better than he is. He feels Debby looking at him. She’s concerned about him. It’s an awful domino effect, the three of them. “No rigor mortis, he isn’t a degree cooler, but his heart isn’t beating.”

“How is that possible?” Debby asks. 

“It isn’t,” Beatrice says, “it’s like he’s in between life and death.”

“What does that mean?” Josh asks.

Beatrice sighs, “I’m not sure, but whatever it is, his body isn’t dying. I don’t know what all this would mean for potential brain damage but if it’s like his body hit the pause button then it might mean there wouldn’t be any.”

“There wouldn’t be any when,” Jenna asks. Josh sucks in his breath, he heard it too, the dangerous words Beatrice deliberately left off. 

“I don’t know if it’s even a possibility, Jenna. I mean his heart isn’t  _ beating _ , but—”

“When, Beatrice?” Jenna’s eyes well up. 

“There potentially wouldn’t be any brain damage if he woke up,” Beatrice finally said. 

_ If he woke up.  _ If Tyler woke up. If Tyler started breathing again miraculously. 

He isn’t decaying. He is in between. 

Josh doesn’t know how to feel. 

“I’m not saying he will. I have no idea what’s happening. It could be a part of the Bishops’ powers or something. But I am saying he is not cold and dead, which is the only dead I’d consider valid,” Beatrice said. 

A tear fell down Jenna’s cheek. She looked at Josh and Josh looked at her. 

_ He could come back. He could wake up.  _

Josh felt his eyes burn, he quickly left the tent. 

...

Debby pulled back the canvas of the tent and saw Josh several feet away, looking out over the wide basin of Trench. She walked over to meet him. 

Josh turned around when she reached him. He looked more lost than she’d ever seen him, more lost than he was in the City, more lost than the first time Tyler was taken. Debby’s heart pulled, she knew what he was feeling. She could see how hopeless he was, now, in the firelight. 

She couldn’t save him from wading into this water. 

“God, Deb. What are we gonna  _ do?”  _ He asks, deflating. 

But Debby could wade into it with him. 

“I don’t know.” She told him. He wasn’t looking for answers, really. Josh needed to unravel, he needed someone to listen to him make it make sense in his brain. 

“I’m so tired of asking that.  _ I don’t know.  _ I’m supposed to have answers, I’m supposed to set us straight. But—” Josh throws a hand out silently like he’s referring to the rock next to Debby’s foot, “but, he’s fucking  _ gone.  _ He’s—” his voice fell, “he’s gone, Deb. Tyler’s dead.” 

The words knock him out, he stares up at the wide night sky. Debby watches him, watch the stars. She bets he’s thinking about a hundred nights out in Trench with Tyler and Jenna before the camp was built, before Josh saved her from City. 

(She remembers the day clearer than anything else in her mind. The Banditos has infiltrated the City as she was walking back to her building from her shift. Debby stopped as they walked by. A few passed her until Josh noticed her around the corner she was peeking from.  _ We’re here to help. The compass lies, East is Up.  _ Debby wasn’t sure entirely what Josh meant. She wasn’t sure what the Banditos were called at the time. But she knew she felt something start in her heart when Josh’s eyes met hers. She knew that whatever he was promising was better than what she was leaving behind. When she joined the rest of the Banditos, donned some yellow another had given to her, Tyler turned to her shadowing Josh closely and smirked behind his bandana. He stuck out a fist to her “Dema don’t control.”) 

Tyler was kind. And it wasn’t fair that he was dead. 

Maybe Josh was looking to see if he could see Tyler up in that big, wide sky. Debby’s sure that’s where he would go, after it all. 

“Tyler’s dead,” Josh repeats then, looks back at Debby. “And he wouldn’t want anyone to mourn, but I’m gonna spend the rest of my life thinking about him.” 

Debby nodded. She knew Josh would never be the same. None of them will, no matter of what Beatrice said might happen, happens or not. 

Debby walked toward him and grabbed his hand then locked their fingers for a second. She searched his eyes to see if he was still lost in that sea. Josh squeezed his eyes shut, most likely to try and stop crying, not to avoid her gaze. Debby released his hand then pulled him into her arms. 

“I don’t even know where to start,” Josh whispers. 

She thought about it for a second, “You have to go see him.”

**10:04 PM**

  
  


Josh looks at the med tent where he knows Tyler lays. He hasn’t been in it since that morning. 

He, Jenna, and Debby sat around the central fire. He and Debby were trying to convince her to go to sleep. 

Jenna must have seen him looking at the tent because she grabbed his wrist. It breaks his trance and he turns to her. 

“Beatrice’s gone to bed, there’s only her assistant medic in there,” she says, meaning  _ you could be alone with him if you needed to.  _

He sees Debby look at him as well. The sudden scrutiny makes him nervous, like he feels again he could vomit. He shakes it off. It’s just Debby and Jenna. 

Josh nods at her. “You should try to get some sleep, stay in our tent tonight, if you don’t want to be alone,” he says to assure he is okay, that she doesn’t need to worry about him. 

He’s sure Jenna does anyway. She squeezes his wrist before she stands to leave with Debby as she says  _ Come on  _ in a soothing voice. 

  
  


Once they’ve left the fire Josh leaves as well and enters the med tent. The assistant medic, Alex, is there, sorting through bandages. 

Luckily, they look at him and know that Josh wants to be alone. Alex leaves the tent with a comforting smile.

Josh is left alone with Tyler. All he can do for a second is stare at him, lying there, motionless. 

Then he sucks in a breath and pulls up a chair to the side of the cot. His elbows land on his knees, his chin in his hands. All of a sudden his shoulders feel heavy and weighed down, Josh doesn’t think he could sit up if he tried. 

The flowers Tyler has in his grasp are still there, he can remember when Tyler first picked one. They were out of the city for the first time and so in awe of all the freedom in front of them. 

_ Everything here is so beautiful, Josh. I mean, look—  _ Tyler picked the bright yellow flower,  _ have you ever seen this color before?  _ Josh hadn’t. 

He looks at Tyler’s still face, tries to imagine the smile he had that day. It’s too hard to picture it, looking at Tyler now. 

“God, what  _ happened,  _ Tyler?” Josh finds himself saying to him. “I’m trying to piece it together but it’s so hard. How did you—why did it come to this?” Josh shakes his head, he hasn’t been able to come up with any explanation he likes. “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know?” The attempt at a joke is weak but if Tyler were alive he’d be laughing, “I mean you leave without telling anyone, not even Jenna, and  _ this  _ is how you return? God, man,  _ what did you do _ ?” Tears burn the backs of Josh’s eyes, he remembers he hasn’t cried yet, “What did you do?” 

His throat gets thick, he knows he’ll start crying if he talks again. Josh opens his mouth anyway, the words are chopped and heavy on his tongue, “I wish y-you could just tell me. I wish you were h—”Josh can’t hold it in anymore, he’s tired of being the leader, he doesn’t want to tell people to be strong or to live on. He wants to let it all go, let the world sort itself out or burn to the ground while he falls apart in this chair next to Tyler. 

Josh is already tired of a world without Tyler in it. 

He looks up again at Tyler, leans closer to him. Josh tried to reach across whatever barriers are between them, he pictures his voice finding the world that exists after death which Tyler so strongly believes in, “Tyler, if you can hear me,  _ come home.  _ It’s always an option, no matter the circumstances, no matter the barrier, you can always leave. That’s what you always used to say, right? You just have to find your way out. Find it and  _ come home.  _ I can’t do this without you, please.” 

He waits for a second after he finishes, watches for any movement in his face, a twitching finger. Nothing ever comes, though. Josh moves back away from him. 

“I’m not giving up hope, I’m not. Beatrice says there’s a chance you’ll come back. So I will wait for you to come back. You hear me? I’m here, Jenna’s here,  _ so come back _ ,” Josh says with finality, the voice which Tyler always agrees with. 

He doesn’t know if Tyler even heard it, though. 


	2. DAY 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Memories, memories, memories,' Tyler thought, 'it’s all I am anymore. '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> at long last, it's finally here! so sorry it took so long but this one's a beast and also life happens you know.  
some helpful definitions for this:  
chosen=a right-hand man of the bishops, a citizen who has been picked by the bishops as a particularly dedicated disciple  
cleansing=a ceremony where citizens' memories of things bishops deem dirty or unholy are taken from them
> 
> hope you enjoy part 2!

  
  


**1:24 AM **

Jenna dreams of Tyler that night. She dreams of the day she met him. 

In city, Jenna worked in a store front which cleaned and repaired fabrics and clothes. Citizens could bring them their own clothes to repair, and often different establishments would send them uniforms to be fixed up for new citizens. 

Tyler worked paving roads in the city. When she first met him, he was bringing in old uniforms for repair. A stack of tattered, dirty jumpsuits was nearly covering his face as the door opened and he walked in. 

Jenna remembers being amused by the image, in a sort of latent way, like she never could have felt that way in City, but if the same situation happened now, in Trench, it would make her smile. 

In the dream, Tyler heaped the jumpsuits onto the counter and began to fill out an information card to go with them, just as she remembers it happening that day. 

When he handed the card to her he smiled—which is why Jenna ever thought twice about him in the first place. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw anyone smile, genuinely, at her. 

Tyler looked up at her for a second, holding his smile in place, then it fell. 

Jenna knows the words before her dream-self blurts them out, “I’m sorry.” He knit his eyebrows at this, “I didn’t mean to make you stop, I just—no one’s ever done that.” 

“Don’t report me,” he said with another smile. And it was a _ joke. _

Jenna couldn’t remember the concept at the time, which is why she responded seriously.

“I won’t.”

Before he could do anything else she told him to come back in five days for the jumpsuits and he left the store with a _ thank you. _

The dream continues, Jenna sees him come back for the jumpsuits. And then it all sort of happens in a montage of her memory: she sees him come back again and again, several times, sometimes with more uniforms, sometimes with his own shirts. She sees a shirt which looked otherwise brand new besides the large hole ripped in the shoulder, she sees herself asking him about it. Jenna sees him respond with a sheepish shrug. 

Then it slows back down, Tyler brings her a stack of shirts. There’s a heavy look in his eyes and he tells her: “These need to be fixed as soon as possible. Some have special instructions, please check the tags.” 

Jenna knows what she’ll find when she looks through them in the dream. There’s a small, handwritten note between the shirts: _ Please make two masks from whatever scrap fabric you can find. East is up. _

She blinks, the note has added a line of text: _ I’m here. _

Jenna stares at it, she knows that line was not on the original note, but she keeps looking at it and it doesn’t go away. 

She shakes her head and puts the note down. It was probably just her imagination, filling in the sad gaps in her life with hope. 

  
  


The dream changes, then, and Jenna sees fire. As her vision focuses she sees the camp, and tents, and the stars above her. She’s in Trench. Just as she wonders why she is dreaming about a place she’s in, a voice comes from next to her: 

“Hi,” it’s soft and a bit scratchy. It’s Tyler. 

Jenna’s heart swells. 

“Hi,” she says. “I miss you,” is hurried out after. In an odd sort of dream-time Jenna realizes after she says the words that she is having a lucid dream. 

Tyler smiles faintly, “I miss you, too.” 

“What happened?” She doesn’t really expect an answer, but the average of the lucidity she has in the dream and whatever her normal dreaming conscious is, seem to form this question but not the logic it requires to believe it’s futile. 

Tyler sighs and looks into the fire, “Got a little mouthy at Nico. What’s new?” It’s a joke but Jenna’s heart drops. She wonders how real this dream is. “It’s okay, don’t worry about me.” 

“Beatrice says you aren’t decaying. You aren’t dying,” Jenna tries to test out what this dream-Tyler’s response will be.

“I….I don’t know. Maybe? I’m trying to figure it out,” his shoulders sag and he lets out a tired breath. “But if this is it, Jenna, please just—don’t give up hope,” he adds after a second. 

Jenna nods, she reaches over and takes his hand. 

“I won’t. I won’t.” 

He nods solemnly. “Tell Josh I said hello, and that it’s gonna be okay.” Jenna nods. 

Tyler reaches a hand out and places it on her cheek, Jenna leans into his calloused palm. 

It’s _ Tyler _, too tangible to be just a memory, and it feels too actuall to be just a lucid dream. For a startling second she believes that this is real. 

Then she hears Tyler say, “I love you _ so much, _Jenna.”

She opens her eyes, nods and says, “I love you, too.” 

The dream fades, after that. First, it’s the firelight then the color of Tyler’s eyes then the feeling of his palm. It all fades and fades until Jenna feels herself stir awake. 

She sits up on her cot, counting her breaths in the morning light. And for a moment, a still, waiting moment she feels a presence next to her. She is so sure it’s Tyler, sitting quietly by her on the cot. Jenna can feel the warmth of his skin, the weight of his presence in the air: the distinct feeling someone you care deeply for is in the room with you, like her soul was reaching out to also be in him. 

She knows, though, if she turned she’d find nothing there. 

—

Tyler can feel it, when Jenna dreams about him. It sort of swells in his not-alive-not-dead chest. 

He’s pulled into Jenna’s dream of himself. It’s the day they met. 

Tyler experiences it from his own point of view, he lives it just as he did that day. It’s a nice gift, to get to see her again, even if she didn’t know it was truly him. 

Then it’s the days after: he comes in again and again to her store front. It’s him with the shirt he purposely ripped to see her. It’s him giving her the note asking her to make masks for his and Josh’s escape, folded between clothes. 

Then Tyler reaches up to scratch his arm. 

It’s a small gesture, but it wasn’t in the memory. No, Tyler knew it wasn’t in the memory because he _ felt _the itch and scratched it. Tyler hadn’t felt anything in his body since he had been in this odd, liminal space. 

Tyler could act freely in Jenna’s dream. Tyler’s heart beat in the dream. In her memory Tyler was _ alive. _

He wonders if he could talk to her. Not here, it would corrupt the memory, he bets. She’d get confused by it all and not believe a word he said. He tries anyway when he hands her the note. He knows exactly what it should say, but he thinks of it having an additional line to tip her off. 

Tyler leaves and hides so he can watch her open the letter and read it. But Jenna didn’t do anything which made him believe she understood. 

He needed to change the scenery, somewhere familiar enough where it might be a memory and Jenna’s subconscious wouldn’t question its validity. 

He thinks of Trench, of camp, of the fire in the middle of it. As soon as he does, there they sit. 

Tyler looks over at Jenna and she is looking into the fire. She hasn’t noticed him yet. 

“Hi,” he says, feeling his heart swell and crack and burst and break. 

He tries to tell her as much as he can, but Tyler doesn’t know much either. He doesn’t know what to tell her when she says his body isn’t decaying. Tyler didn’t know what that meant for him. Was he stuck in this liminal space between life and death? Would he forever be doomed to relive memories of the people he left behind? 

Jenna’s questions surprised him, in a wonderful way. He felt as though she might be figuring it all out. 

But something tugged at him, like a child wanting to walk faster. Tyler could feel her slowly slipping from him, her body wanting to wake up. He can control what happens in the dream, but not how long it lasts, Tyler supposes. 

It is time to wrap this up. 

What more could he say to Jenna? What could he say to the person he loves most in the world? 

This has to be the hardest part—leaving her. 

  
  


He reaches out to touch Jenna’s cheek illuminated in firelight. It’s just as soft as he remembers. And she leans into it just as she always did. 

It’s real and tangible, his fingers warm and blood pumping. Tyler is quite grateful for this last shot at feeling alive. 

Tyler wants to say something like _ goodbye _but he can’t bring his lips to form the words. Jenna smiles softly at him. She must believe it’s a dream, after all. 

It all feels like a cruel joke. He has been given a cross-planar glimpse at one of the only people he wanted to say goodbye to before he goes and he _ can’t even say it. _And if he did who knows if Jenna would believe him? No, to her it’s still all a grief-induced dream. Hopefully what he’s said to her will last after she wakes. 

Jenna has a good mind, he’s sure it will. 

Tyler decides not to ruin the dream for her. He doesn’t try to say goodbye. 

“I love you _ so much, _Jenna.” 

She nods and says it back to him. 

  
  


The image fades from Tyler’s vision staggeredly:

the feeling of her soft cheek fades, then the saturation of her ice blue eyes fade, and then the scene isn’t there at all. Jenna must be waking up, he was right: he had no control over how long it would last. 

He suddenly regrets not telling her more, not saying goodbye. 

Maybe it is for the best, though. 

She'll have the story. The story is weightless, the story she can carry in her back pocket. Yes, that will be better. Jenna and her pocket-sized Tyler, whose sweater sleeves she’ll stitch up only in her dreams. All the grief and tragedy will weigh nothing when it's all just words. 

He thinks it will be fine to exist like that, if he is allowed to exist at all. He'll be the exact size of his laugh: wide and ringing. 

  
  
  


**9:32 AM **

  
  


Jenna decides it’s best to only tell Josh about her maybe-not-a-dream-dream for now. She thinks she’ll be able to tell him when she sees him for the first time that morning. 

When Jenna leaves her tent, Josh sees her from a few feet away and makes a face like he had been looking for her. 

“Hey,” he says when he’s close enough. “How are you doing?” 

“I’m okay. You?”

“The same, I think,” he says without much emotion. 

Jenna opens her mouth to tell him about the dream right as he says, “We need to go to the Comm tent. They said Keons responded to our message.” 

Jenna rememberers then that Josh and the Communication Team sent a message to Keons last night. It was given to the Bandito spies and told to be passed along. 

It was risky, stupid, even. What if Keons _ wasn’t _behind this? What if he is still just an evil Bishop and the Banditos hand delivered a note from their spies in City right to the enemy?

All of this was brought up, but Josh bid that the potential of it working outweighed the risks, and the note couldn’t be directly traced back to them—their spies made sure of that. He won, of course. 

When Josh and Jenna get to Comms the whole tent is a buzz of activity. It’s so different from the somber atmosphere outside, throughout the rest of camp. The telegraph machines buzz and whir with messages from spies, teams deliberate over tables as they decode cyphers, Banditos are loudly dictating messages to others that are being sent into the City. 

Jenna feels lost in all the sound and movement when something striking happens. 

One second, her head is flooded with the senses of the Comm tent, she sees the tan light of the space from the canvas and feels the warm bodies bustling around her, she hears the noise bounce around every corner. 

And then she doesn’t. 

Jenna blinks and everything around her is white, there is no sound, and it is incredibly cold. There is nothing but endless white, surrounding her. She can feel the cold seep into her extremities. She gasps at the sudden shock—except it doesn’t sound like her own gasp. 

Before she can think about it too much or find any bearing there, she blinks again and she’s back in the Comm tent. Sound and tan light flood back in, her limbs are instantly warm again. Jenna is looking at Josh and another Bandito’s confused faces staring back at her. 

The startling, chilling moment is gone as quick as it came. 

“Jenna? Are you okay?” It’s Josh. 

She nods. “I’m, I’m fine, thanks. I’m good.” 

Josh looks like he doesn’t believe her, the other Bandito looks like she is incredibly concerned by Jenna. 

Josh’s eyebrows pushed together quickly then he continues, “I was saying, this is May. Her team intercepted the first note from Keons.” 

Jenna smiles at May, who returns it kindly. She has short, dark, curly hair and beautiful dark eyes. Jenna is sure she has encountered her around camp before, despite not being in the Comm tent all that often. It makes her feel bad for having to be introduced again. 

“Around 8 AM we got a response from Keons, it was given by a Chosen to one of our spies to be sent to us,” May says. She gestures for them to follow her and starts walking to a nearby table. “My team, Alpha 2 deciphered it a half an hour later. It wasn’t easy, it used three different cyphers, each we only partially had the answers for.” 

“Here’s the message,” another Bandito says from across the table, handing over a piece of paper. They are surrounded by two others who are pouring over sheets of paper at the table. 

May takes it and holds it out to Josh and Jenna. 

_ Meet at sunset, cave under 4 _

“What did our note to him say?” Jenna asks. 

“He has been received. Next move,” May says. 

“Was there anything else on the paper we got this on? Was it handwritten?” Josh asks. 

May looks over at the Bandito across the table, “Bo,” and the Bandito—Bo—hands May another piece of paper from near them. 

The note was handwritten in black pen, it seemed, and blank other than the words. 

“Handwriting matched Keons. We couldn’t find anything else on the paper, no hidden ink, no symbols. It’s just the words,” May said. 

“He wants to meet,” Jenna said mostly to Josh, trying to believe it. 

Josh breathes deeply, brings the decrypted note closer, “Four? Does he mean—”

“The lookout?” Jenna offers. 

“That’s what we thought,” May said. 

“It’s closest to the City, it would make sense,” Josh says. 

The Banditos set up four lookouts on the cliffs of Trench between camp and the City. There were small teams stationed at each, patrolling to guide any escapees to camp and to watch for any dangers. The latter was mostly used in situations which involve Tyler, which strikes Jenna as sort of funny when she thinks it. He’d laugh, if he was here. 

Then, a realization hits her and Josh at the same time, they look at each other. 

“He knows about the Lookouts,” Josh says. She nods. 

Maybe his Chosen found this out. His supposed rebel Chosen could have scouted the City and the perimeter for any signs of the Banditos, and found the Lookouts as well as their spy network. 

Jenna sucks in a breath and hopes that is the answer because if it isn’t—

“Do the other Bishops know, too?” May asks.

“The City would have done something by now if they did,” Josh looks at Jenna, “right?” 

She looks at May then to Josh, “The City doesn’t typically deal in direct assaults outside the borders. We have no way of knowing.” 

That was the answer no one wanted to hear. 

“When does the sun set?” Jenna asks. 

Josh shrugs, “Nine hours, give or take.” 

Jenna and Josh thank May and the rest of Alpha 2 and leave the tent. 

“What are we even gonna ask him, Josh? Well, no, before _ that _how do we know this isn’t a trap?” Jenna says in a harsh, hushed tone once they’ve exited. 

Josh grabs her wrist and takes her to the empty Central tent. “I don’t know, I don’t know, okay? But I mean, look at it all, Jen. The note on Tyler’s jacket was in Keon’s handwriting, he knows about our Lookouts, he received a note from our spies and didn’t tell anyone _ and responded _without saying ‘I’m going to kill you!’ It’s not much to go on, but it’s all we got.” Josh is pacing around the tent’s wide living space. 

Jenna crosses her arms and remains still, “We have no idea if Keons told the other Bishops about the note, _ and _ we have no fucking clue if he told the Bishops about this meeting either!” 

Josh stops pacing, he’s several feet away from her in the tent’s large open space. “Yesterday you were the one saying we should believe Keons is on our side!” 

Jenna sighed deeply and puts her hand to her forehead. “God I don’t know, Josh. It just—it doesn’t feel right, okay? I don’t like it.” 

“I understand, but Jenna, we have _ nothing else _. Tyler is—” he stops, “This is our only chance at figuring any of this out.” 

Jenna doesn’t respond. She knows the stakes, she is reminded of them every second she breathes and Tyler doesn’t. 

Josh sense he won’t get anything else from her and deflates, “I’m gonna go tell Debby about what we know. Can you talk to Beatrice, see if there’s an update?” His voice is a bit short, not as warm as Jenna is accustomed to. Even the slight change makes her feel as frozen as the strange white space from earlier. 

Jenna nods. Josh looks exasperated and leaves the tent.

—

Tyler is standing in a wide, expansive, blank space after the dream with Jenna ends. He arrived with a start and gasps at the shock. 

Once he settles he realizes it is like the surroundings of the shifting place where he talked to the familiar old man. 

It’s cold and empty. _ Maybe this is finally it, _ he thinks. 

Tyler can’t necessarily feel the cold since he isn’t a warm body anymore, but enough time on Earth and living tells him that this place is decidedly not warm. 

There’s nothing really for him to do here but wait for something to happen. Maybe a figure will appear and lead him to the Great Unknown people always seem to talk about. 

As Tyler wonders what will come for him, if anything will, he sees a dark flit in the corner of his eye. 

His head snaps to where it was, but it is gone now. 

Tyler waits, and he sees it again, in the same spot, but he is looking now. It’s still too fast to discern but it’s there: something dark, maybe black, and fast-moving. 

It appears again, for longer this time. It is a bird. Tyler sees it fly for a few seconds in the white space then disappear again. 

Then the bird shows up again and flies in a wide arc across the space. This time, Tyler sees it clearly. The bird is some sort of black songbird. 

When it disappears it’s like the bird is flying into a cloud of thick, white smoke. 

Then, Tyler sees more dark shapes appear in front of him. For a moment it seems like they are all moving toward him, like the bird in and out of the smoke. But he realizes that the great white space is the smoke and it is what’s moving. 

As soon as he does, the shapes become more recognizable and he sees branches and trees and rocks. 

As Tyler watches the scene reveal itself before him, he blinks and doesn’t open his eyes again. 

  
  
  
  


**10:45 AM**

Jenna stays in the Central tent after Josh leaves for a good ten minutes. She doesn’t know what to do, disagreeing with Josh doesn’t sit well with her, it makes her feel sad and guilty, but agreeing with him doesn’t feel too great either, now. 

She’s also angry, maybe at him, maybe at the whole, ugly thing. 

Later, she helps hand out breakfast for something to do with her hands and sits with the other Banditos for a while before heading to the Med tent. 

If anyone asks she definitely isn’t stalling by helping with the dirty dishes after the meal. 

Finally, she goes to the Med tent and finds Beatrice. She is over Tyler’s body, observing things then writing them down. Beatrice has a set look on her face. 

Jenna approaches and lays a hand on Tyler’s chest. Her heart sinks when she finds it still, she was hoping for a miracle. 

_ Come on, Ty. Just make it easy for once. _

“Hey,” Beatrice says. “No change at all, not through the night either. He’s the same as yesterday morning.” Beatrice looks down at Tyler quizzically. She is a very smart person, Jenna can tell how much it bothers her there isn’t an answer to this yet. 

Jenna nods at her report. Jenna gives Beatrice the full rundown of what happened in the Comm tent. She includes the part about her and Josh, not as colorfully though. Now isn’t really the time to sow dissent, besides only really Jenna and Josh would be the ones to get angry at each other over this. 

All the emotion of losing Tyler and having to tuck it neatly away to deal with the aftermath boiled over into anger at the only other person who’s in the same pain as them: each other. 

Beatrice follows it all. “Well, I’m sorry to say it, Jenna, but I think you should go to the meeting.” 

Jenna knows she should, she gets that it’s the only option. But something else is gnawing at her, getting in the way of her thoughts. 

“By the way, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Beatrice says. “I was thinking we should move Tyler, from the Med tent. I’m worried about the traffic that comes through here and I just think he’d be safer somewhere else.”

Beatrice has a place in mind, she’s not saying it in case Jenna objects to the whole idea. “Where?”

“Your tent, or the Central tent. No one goes in there but us. I just think—”

Jenna thinks of Tyler in their tent, alive. She thinks of him throwing a pillow at her and laughing, she thinks of Tyler kissing her a thousand different times, she thinks of crying and holding on and waiting until the sun comes out to remember they are alive. 

Their tent is not a place where Tyler should be without a heartbeat. 

But Jenna also considers the possibility of him in the Central tent. She thinks of him laying in the background while her, Josh, Debby, and Beatrice strategize how to get him back. It would feel like a grotesque mascot or a macabre reminder of their cause and altogether too out of place. 

“I agree. He can go to our tent,” Jenna says. 

  
  


**11:37 AM **

Jenna sits on the rock and listens to the waterfall a few yards from camp rage and roar. She shuts her eyes tight and sees two medics carry the stretcher with Tyler into her tent from just a few minutes ago. Jenna opens them again but quickly can’t take it and puts a hand over her eyes, she remembers the Banditos creating a path from the Med tent to her own, holding each other’s hands. Just like yesterday’s terrible morning. She remembers seeing Josh across the way, being unable to meet his eyes, still. She remembers Debby appearing behind Josh, clutching his arm and laying her cheek on his shoulder, and only then does Jenna notice how bad off he truly is. 

It makes her feel guilty all over again. 

Jenna stands up quickly and paces. 

The sound of the rushing water fills her ears, her senses, like the Comm tent that morning. But now she is begging for the overload, anything to flood out the thoughts, the feelings. 

No one is at the waterfall on this sunny afternoon. Usually someone is always here doing the washing or bathing. But right now, the pool around the waterfall is empty. Save for herself. 

It doesn’t make Jenna feel any less like the woman made of glass everyone is trying to avoid at all costs. The Banditos she sat with at breakfast were kind but very timid when talking to her. The ones while she was helping wash dishes were the same, they handed every dish to her with a sad look and tight lips. 

Really only Beatrice, Debby, and Josh have spoken to her at length the past day and a half. 

Jenna walks to the water's edge and kneels at it, she sees her reflection, haggard and tired. The ripples in the water disturb the image a bit but she can still tell her clothes are wrinkled and the bags under her eyes are dark and deep. 

She cups her hands into the water and splashes it onto her face. It’s refreshing, it makes her feel worlds better when the cool water hits her skin. 

Jenna opens her eyes again she doesn’t see her face anymore, instead it’s Tyler. 

Tyler is staring back at her. 

She shakes her head, it’s her mind playing tricks, surely. 

Tyler’s face remains. 

Jenna lifts a hand to be in the view of the reflection, Tyler’s hand mirrors her movement. 

She turns away. _ It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real. _

  
  


Jenna starts breathing rapidly, she feels her chest tighten. Panic fills her body. Her eyes prick with tears. 

She is kneeling, heaving breath after breath after breath, begging her body to calm down while it doesn’t listen. 

Finally Jenna turns back to the waterfall and watches it for a moment, listens to it roar. It’s so unapologetically loud. Jenna bets any panic the waterfall has doesn’t have anywhere to hide and bubble up through forced breaths from its body. 

She bets the roar is a constant release. 

Jenna screams. 

She screams wildly and loudly, until her breath is gone. 

“I wish I was dead, then at least I’d be with you!” rips out of her throat. 

After, Jenna’s hands fall to the ground and her head follows. Her forehead rests in the dirt and her shoulders sag. The tension leaves her body and all Jenna can do is cry. 

  
  
  


**12:26 PM**

Later, as Jenna makes her way back to her tent, she turns the corner and sees a white pile outside her tent, and a small golden pile in front of the white. As she gets closer she recognizes the golden pile as Jason, and she recognizes the white pile, too. It’s lilies, stacked haphazardly on top of each other outside of her tent.

She kneels down to it when she is close enough. Jason looks up at her when she approaches, Jenna places a hand on his head as a greeting. The pile, she notices as she got a better look at it, also has yellow petals in it, not nearly as many as the lilies, but enough. 

Her eyes become misty. 

Jenna turns her attention to Jason, “And what are you doing here, huh?” She cradles his head in her hands and he purrs lightly. 

Jenna remembers when Jason wandered up to camp, he was just a cub and thin as a twig. Jenna had remembered that she read a book once saying cheetahs weren’t supposed to be friendly to humans and she had no idea where he came from. 

Tyler took him in anyway and cleaned him up and fed him. Since that day, the two were inseparable.

Jenna looks as Jason’s golden eyes now, she thinks he looks a bit sad, “Are you protecting him?” After a moment he closes his eyes briefly then opens them, like he was answering. Jenna says, “I’m sure Tyler appreciates that.” At the sound of his name Jason nuzzles into the crook of her arm, like he knows why Tyler isn’t here. 

(‘_ Look, Jen! He’s following me!’ Tyler called out to her, and sure enough there was Jason—affectionately named after Josh’s suggestion— toting behind Tyler as he wandered through camp. Jenna laughed and gave him a thumbs up. _) 

She pets his head. “I know, I miss him too, bud. I know.”

Josh walks up behind her, then. “Hi,” he says. 

She turns to see him. Josh looks sheepish, and a little ashamed, his hands balled in his pockets and head downtrodden. Jenna feels an unfamiliar stiffness between them. 

“Hey,” she answers. “Did you do this?” Jenna gestures to the flowers. 

He looks at the knee-high pile in front of her, his eyes glint. Josh shakes his head, “Don’t know who started it, but everyone at camp has been bringing them here.” After a minute he adds, “It’s nice.” 

She nods. The white lilies came from the eastern outskirts of camp. She can picture the grove in her mind, there were many days she made Tyler sit out there with her to relax for an hour or two. Though Jenna bets there’s a depleted portion in it, now. 

“I wonder why they chose these,” Jenna wonders aloud, surely only Josh would know about the lazy afternoons she and Tyler spent there, only he’d be able to place the flowers’ significance. 

Josh closes his lips tightly and sighs through his nose, “I don’t know. Maybe they reminded them of him,” he suggests. 

Jenna considers it. The flowers’ shape is delicate, the swoop of the petals makes Jenna think of the way Tyler’s smile curves, the long stem reminds her of his arm outstretched offering to dance with her in the firelight as Josh played a silly tune. The bright, white color reminds her inexplicably of the way his laugh sounds, or maybe it’s just his voice: clean and crisp, cutting through every other sound she hears. 

“I can see it,” she tells Josh.

He nods, cracks a small smile, Jenna thinks she’s dreaming again, “Me too.” 

After a minute she looks back up at Josh, “I’m sorry,” she says. She feels tension leave her just as it did at the waterfall. 

Josh shakes his head then pauses, he sits down next to her. Jason perks up his head to observe him, Josh pats his head and says, “Don’t be, I’m the one who should be sorry. You were right, it is kind of stupid to meet a Bishop just based on one note.” 

Jenna looks back at the pile of lilies, “What did Debby say?”

“She said we should do it, but ask for proof from Keons. And if we don’t get it in time, we don’t go.”

Jenna hums, “Beatrice agreed, too. They’re right. We’d know how serious he is if we get a response in time.” 

“If we get one at all. Maybe we put it in yellow and see if he can read it, like you said he’d have to have help,” Josh says. 

Jenna smiles as she feels the stiffness between them fade, they are acting in step again. Tyler was always saying how alike her and Josh are, she never believed it until now. 

She leans over and lays her head on his shoulder. Josh wraps his hands around her closest arm. “Apology accepted,” she whispers. 

“Likewise,” he whispers back. 

Jason flips onto Josh’s lap now, belly up. His mouth opened and looking excitedly up at Josh. It makes them both laugh as Josh rubs Jason’s stomach. 

  
  


——

  
  


Tyler suddenly is standing in the clearing of a forest. It isn’t very large and everywhere around it is densely wooded. He sees a small pond in the clearing and goes to look into it. It seems normal enough, if anything a little murky. Tyler also notices a small collection of large rocks, a few bushes and not much else in the grassy clearing. 

Then, he sees the trees that rim it are all incredibly tall and curved inwards, almost forming a shell around the space. 

It reminds Tyler of ribs around a heart. 

Something tells him that connection is more than coincidence. 

_ Hell of a coinky-dink _Tyler hears Josh’s voice in his head. It makes him smile, thinking of Josh saying it. It keeps him smiling to think of Josh. 

Tyler turns around and sees something resting on the collection of rocks. He walks toward it. 

It’s small and blue, when Tyler gets closer he can see it is cloth. He picks it up and is surprised he can hold it, when he does he realizes it’s a balaclava. No, it’s the balaclava he gave Josh the first time they ever left the City. 

Tyler remembers sneaking to his room. He remembers Josh's apprehension, he remembers whispering _ they won’t know it’s you. _Tyler remembers handing the mask to Josh. 

Tyler remembers Josh taking it from his hands and putting it on. 

They were young and reckless, they wanted to be the sky. It was Tyler’s first act of rebellion. He only ever worked up the courage to do it because of Josh. 

He smiles again, looks up at the sky.

Of everything, this is exactly what Tyler thinks of when he thinks of Josh with any sort of finality. 

“You’re giving me time, huh? To say goodbye?” He asks. 

Tyler waits, balaclava in hand, for something to answer him. 

Nothing happens. 

Tyler looks back down at the mask and looks closely at the stitching, runs his thumb over the threading. It was Jenna’s. He remembers asking her to make them from fabric in her shop. 

When he looks up again something else is on the rocks. 

He doesn’t expect to see what lies on the rock, now. It’s a small length of white, lace fabric. 

It was from the day Jenna gave him the masks. He remembers going to her to pick up the shirts she repaired, with the masks folded between them. He remembers tearing through the shirts to find the masks. He remembers the small length of white lace falling onto his lap when he pulled them out. 

(He briefly wonders how this detail was left out of Jenna’s dream earlier, maybe he had rushed he out of remembering it in his haste to talk to her) 

Tyler had asked her about the most interesting fabric she’d seen in the shop, once. Jenna told him about reams of white fabric that all had to have come from the same garment. She described all the different materials and how nice they were, but she was most fascinated by the lace. The artistry and intricacy of it was something not found anywhere in the City. 

All the dedication was focused on one thing, and it wasn’t artisan fabric. 

Jenna didn’t tell him that she stole a length of it for herself. He found that out when the fabric landed on his lap. 

_ Bring them back to me, _ she had said when the shirts were both in hers and Tyler’s hands, _ if they need to be fixed again, _Jenna finished as she let go of them. 

The night Jenna broke out of the City, when they were sitting around the fire at camp, Tyler reached into his pocket and handed her the length of white lace. 

He looks at the lace now, it is the same white he remembers, still roughly a foot and a half long. 

Tyler smiles as he remembers it draped over Jenna and his joined hands as they were married in camp. The ceremony was in the same style as marriages in City, but there they were drenched in Vialist rituals and practices, done for efficiency and practicality. 

It had made Jenna smile when Tyler suggested they do their own, rebellious ceremony. Josh had taken the place of the person who would read from the Vialist texts, instead he talked about love and union. 

He clutched the balaclava and the lace close to his chest, at the memory. 

_ Memories, memories, memories, _ Tyler thought, _ it’s all I am anymore. _

He thinks about it, these items are what Josh and Jenna will remember him through most strongly, he’s sure. 

Tyler kneels down to the ground, he lays the balaclava in front of him. 

Nothing responded before, but Tyler is sure something is listening. 

“I’m leaving this behind for Josh, he’ll remember us escaping for the first time while he wore it. He’ll remember me giving it to him. He’ll remember me by looking at it.” 

Nothing happens, still. 

Tyler lays down the lace. “I’m leaving this for Jenna. She’ll remember giving it to me, and she’ll remember me giving it back to her. She will remember getting married to me with it over our hands. She will remember me by looking at it.” 

As he finishes saying this, the items fade and disappear. Tyler exhales. 

He stands and looks at the clearing again. If this is it, it’s quite beautiful. 

Just as he has that thought, the scene shifts. (If he thought to laugh, he would have then.) 

The clearing becomes cold, and green is replaced by white, light brown trees become darker. Tyler reaches out to touch a still green leaf then flinches as he touches it and it is ice cold, he blinks and realizes it had become crystallized in ice. 

He watches the leaf fall to the ground. 

Tyler looks up and the clearing is gone, he is standing on a wooded shoulder of a snowy road. 

  
  


**2:17 PM **

After lunch, Jenna helps with the dishes just as she always does. 

She reaches to grab a tin plate Sam, another Bandito, hands her. When she does, she doesn’t see her hand or the plate at all. Instead her wrist is more tanned, it has three lines wrapped around it and she isn’t reaching for a plate, she’s touching a leaf, crystallized in ice. It’s colder than she expects, for some reason, and jerks away. 

She blinks and it’s her own hand again, and the plate clatters loudly out of her hand, hitting the table and landing on the floor. 

Sam and the other campers stare at her concerned. 

_ Yeah, you really should be concerned, _she thinks. 

“Sorry,” Jenna says as she bends down to pick up the plate. 

Jenna stays crouched on the floor for a moment because her eyes are starting to burn and she _ really _ doesn’t want to cry right now over a dropped _ plate. _

Sam bends down as well, meets her on the floor and hands Jenna the plate. 

“Are you okay?” they ask in a quiet, kind voice. 

Jenna takes a big sniffle and nods, making a tight-lipped smile, “Yep. I’m all good. Thank you, Sam.” 

They narrow their eyes at her, “I can tell everyone to leave for a minute. Seriously, it’s no big deal.” 

She smiles, genuinely. This is the kindness Tyler and Josh counted on when they started this place, it makes her heart warm to still feel it even in Tyler’s absence. 

(Not like she hasn’t been feeling it for the past two days.) “I’m okay, Sam. Really,” Jenna knows she probably doesn’t look it. She knows her eyes are glassy and her nose is red. But she really is. She’s managing. 

Sam seems to believe her. “Okay. Well, don’t hesitate to run out and make a scene if you need to,” it makes Jenna laugh, “I’m serious! Just go full wailing-widow! No one will say a thing.” 

Jenna laughs hollowly but it kind of dies off at _ widow. _Sam’s smile does too when they see Jenna’s face fall. 

“Too soon?” They ask sheepishly

Jenna looks at the ground then up at Sam. The whole tent has no doubt heard their conversation. Jenna thinks she heard a few snickers at Sam’s joke. “No, not at all. He’d be making the same jokes.” 

This makes Sam smile again and they both stand after a moment and return to the dishes.

  
  
  


**3:38 PM**

When Jenna finally makes it back to her tent, she finds Jason and the lilies still there. She pets Jason affectionately before passing him to enter. 

Tyler lies on their cot, eyes closed, clutching the flowers. Before Jenna can process the image, she notices something else lying over his hands. It’s the white lace she gave to him with the balaclavas she made. It was a promise that she’d see him again, then it was a promise to each other at their wedding. Now it’s a reminder of Tyler, laying on his still body. 

But the lace was not here when she left the tent. She kept it stowed away in a drawer, somewhere safe where only her and Tyler could find it. And now it sits out on his hands. 

Jenna pulls over a chair to sit next to the head of the cot. 

It’s possible a Bandito put the lace out, as an homage. But no one could have known where she kept it, unless they routed around the tent. That didn’t seem like something anyone here would do, though. 

“You wanna explain this to me? Huh?” She says to Tyler. “I mean, seriously. There’s about one million unanswered questions that all seem to lead back to _ you _. And that isn’t possible! You aren’t here!” Jenna has to look away so she doesn’t cry. 

Jenna turns back to him, she doesn’t want to cry anymore, her cheeks are sore and her eyes are too. It was that terrible point of sadness when you couldn’t sob anymore, you just have to sit there and feel nothing but empty. 

“Tyler, I don’t know where you are, or if you can even hear me now. But if you can, now would be a really good time to come back. We really need you back here. _ I _ need you back here.” She sighs and drops her head. “It was easier when you were in City, because at least we knew where to go to find you and get you. But now, you’re just _ gone _ , and we’re all lost. Josh is careening off course every second, Debby’s trying so hard to keep him straight. And I’m—” Jenna thinks of the instances of seeing Tyler in his perspective, his reflection in the lake, “I’m losing my freaking mind. So maybe it’s selfish to beg for you to come back, but I don’t care because your life isn’t _ done _ . You aren’t done living, Tyler. So please just come back and _ live. _”

The tent flap opens after, and Josh pokes his head through. 

“How much of that did you hear?” She asks. 

Josh enters the tent, “Enough.” He drags another chair up and sits next to her. 

“The lace, I didn’t put it there.” She says, pointing to Tyler’s hands.. “And all day, I’ve been...seeing him.”

“Seeing him?”

“I’m not really sure what to call it, sometimes I’ll just have a flash and see things as if I am him. Like in the Comm tent,” Josh nods as she explains, “I was just in this white space, and I gasped, and it wasn’t me. Then later I dropped a plate because when I reached for it, it wasn’t my hand. It was Tyler, and his hand was reaching out to touch a frozen leaf,” she sighs, puts her head in her hands. “I think I’m going crazy.” 

“How many more times did this happen?”

“A couple.” 

“Just before I came here, I went to my tent and the balaclava I escaped in was on the desk. I didn’t put it there, neither did Debby,” Josh said. 

Jenna looks up at him. 

“I thought at first we had both forgotten and one of us put it there, but now…” he trails off, “You aren't crazy, Jenna. Something is going on, but we’ll figure it out.”

“I just feel like we are only working with one piece of a thousand-piece puzzle,” she says. 

“Me too, but Comms got a response from Keons. I think we’ll find some answers pretty soon.” 

  
  


——

  
  


Tyler is alone on the shoulder of the snowy road. It seems to be a paved path through a dense forest, in the middle of winter. He is sure he has never been here before. 

After a while, a car pulls up. It’s plain and kind of beautiful to Tyler, in that way. 

His body is on autopilot, then. He walks toward the car, opens the door and climbs inside as if he has been waiting for it the whole time. 

The inside of the car is just as plain as the outside and strikes Tyler the same way. In the front seat, there were three figures. They were dark and shadowy, but not menacing.

He didn’t really _ know _they weren’t menacing, but he had a feeling. 

The car starts driving forward again. 

“Where are we going?” Tyler asks.

The snowy trees on the side of the road streak past in the windows. 

“Somewhere where you can save what has been done,” the driver said. The driver has a stern, immovable voice. Like what they said cannot be untrue. It reminds Tyler of a mountain. 

Tyler doesn’t know what that means, what happened is done, just because he is in this odd liminal space between _ then _ and _ whatever is next _ doesn’t mean _ then _can be changed. Spilled milk, and all that. 

“I’m not alive, I’m dead, dr—dreaming I guess. I can’t change anything,” Tyler says. 

The second figure turns around, the face is vague and unfamiliar if the figure turned away Tyler wouldn’t be able to recall what they looked like. “We’re driving toward the morning sun, wash away your blood, child. All you did will be undone.” The second person's voice is different from the first, Tyler thinks it sounds younger and full of some fire. It’s like hearing the whispers of revolution or feeling the hum of the air in a storm. 

After they say this, when Tyler blinks he sees the car they are in now on fire. He thinks it’s a horrible premonition until he blinks again. Tyler sees the scene again and it isn’t the plain car they are in now, it’s longer and lower. He blinks: smells smoke and gas. He blinks: he sees his hands, dark from soot and definitely the source of the gasoline smell. He blinks: sparks fly into the night air, mimicking the stars. He blinks: some old force fills his bones and says _ well done _with no words. He blinks: he’s pulling a familiar jacket out of the burned trunk. He blinks: he smiles when he realizes the yellow tape wasn’t damaged at all. 

“You’re remembering, that’s the first step,” the third figure, who has a calm, steady voice, says. 

Tyler blinks and doesn’t see anything but his eyelids. 

“What if I don’t want to change it?” He asks. 

The Third turns to him, their face is the same swimming uncertainty in his mind as the second. “I suppose you don’t have to. But here is where you’d make the choice.” Tyler thinks of a dove when they speak. 

“Why here?”

“It is between two places.” 

“Like Trench,” there’s a pain in Tyler’s chest as he says it. He misses it. 

The Third nods, “You know quite well what it is like to be between two things, child.” 

Tyler’s quiet for a minute, then, “So it’s really up to me? If I get to die or live?” 

“A bit. The Universe also has a say in the urgency of it. But it is _ your _ soul in question. It won’t come back unless you want it to,” the Third explains. 

Tyler thinks about the people he’s leaving behind, he’s said goodbye and maybe the story ended abruptly but maybe it was always supposed to end that way. 

“It’s so strange, how deeply and profoundly humans remember each other,” the Second says. 

Tyler realizes they can hear inside his head. 

His story ended abruptly, but he was having trouble finding the purpose in it. 

“Why do I have to come back at all?” Tyler asks. 

“Don’t you remember your mother’s lessons, child?” The First says. 

Tyler does, as soon as they say it. It was strange, as if something had been suppressing the memories until now. His mother would tell him stories before he went to sleep when she was supposed to be reading him Vialist texts. The stories would be about gorgeous nature and the wide, endless sky and he always had a hard time imagining them because in the City, the sky was dim and the only nature was small patches of grass between concrete. 

Despite his imagination’s issues, as a small child he loved the stories, he delighted in the images which kept away looming thoughts at night. As he grew Tyler wasn’t as swept up as he’d usually been in them. He was jaded by anger at the City, at Nico, and he was angry his mother found the audacity to think about some nonsensical stories when their life was nothing like them at all. 

“I never believed them.” Tyler said. 

If these beings could laugh, the Second does. 

“We heard your prayers, child. It is okay to admit it now.” The Third says. 

Tyler doesn’t remember praying to these beings at all, unless they were talking about the silent wondering about anything else he did while in Vialist services which he wasn’t sure counted, “Well I’m sorry you believed them, but all I’ve ever learned was lying. Whatever I said I didn’t mean it.” 

“It’s interesting, he does not believe in the force from which he was made,” the First being says. 

“Yes, he will need to believe if he wishes to return,” the Third responds. 

“You keep saying that: come back, return. Why? What does my mother have to do with it?” Tyler asks. 

“Everything. She brought you into this world, taught you the lessons, even if you do not believe them, they are apart of you now. You are meant for something great, child. If you wish to, you would help balance the Universe a great deal,” the Second says. 

Tyler waits for a moment, looks out at the passing scenery, then says, “Convince me, convince me to come back. Tell me who you are.” 

The beings do not seem phased by his request. The First speaks: 

“We are what your mother told you about at night. We are a vessel of the Universe, just as the birds, the trees, the water, the mountains all are. The Universe is large and has many aspects, it chooses to speak through many things.” There’s a slight pause just before the First continues, “Like you, child. You are a vessel as well. The Universe has chosen you to be its eyes, its ears, its mouthpiece, its hands.” 

“We can not tell you _ why _ you must come back, this is something you must find yourself. But if you choose to, the Universe will be grateful,” the Third says. 

Tyler looks at his lap, “What if I choose not to? What happens then?” 

“Do not worry. Humans often get distracted by polarity and severity, they neglect to see the harmony of it all,” the Second says, “the in-betweenness, if you will. Say you choose to not return, your soul will be guided into Afterlife, just as all souls who pass on from the living plane do.” 

“Is the Afterlife bad?” All Tyler can really think about are neon gravestones. 

“You should not think about that dreaded City any longer. It’s crimes against the Universe are what brought you to this terrible decision,” the First says. 

“Afterlife is not bad, it is eternal rest. It is not something to be feared,” the Third says in an assuring voice. 

Eternal rest sounds really nice to Tyler, after everything. He’s said goodbye, he thinks he is ready to go. He still has questions, but none he has the energy to find answers to. 

“May I try once more?” The Second asks. 

“Yes.”

“What was it like to feel in love?” 

The question throws him because it sounds so human. Maybe not the content, Tyler can’t really picture a person asking him _ that _, but the curiosity of it was terribly human. 

The beings can read his mind apparently and he can’t think of how to explain this with words, so he thinks about it. 

Tyler thinks about handing Jenna the length of white lace, he thinks about feeling her smile against his lips, he thinks about the swell of his heart when he saw her after coming back to camp from the City. Tyler thinks of Josh and laughing so easily with him. He thinks about the night they escaped, he thinks about falling into a ditch while running away from the Chosen, he thinks about how strong Josh’s grip was as he pulled Tyler up and out of the ditch. 

“Is all that not worth fighting for?” The Second says. 

Tyler considers this, that may be true. But Tyler is _ so tired _ and it has been _ so long. _He wants to rest. 

“You said the Universe would be okay if I left, right?” Tyler asks. 

“Yes, it will take some time, but most things do.” The Third says. 

Tyler can feel the Second start, they wanted Tyler to come back very badly. He couldn’t quite figure out why. 

“Then I’m choosing to go, please.” Tyler says. “The world is a beautiful place and I am no longer afraid to die.” 

Tyler lays his head against the window and closes his eyes, he doesn’t see smoke or sparks anymore. All he feels is the hum of the window against his temple and he only sees the red-white of his closed eyelids. 

He takes a final not-living breath and he’s ready to slip quietly away. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Just as he thinks the final traces are leaving him he jolts like he did when he had nightmares of falling off the walls of Dema. Tyler’s stomach flips and feels like he’s falling then he feels his face hit something hard. 

When he opens his eyes, he’s staring at a long-forgotten forest floor. 

  
  
  


**4:24 PM **

Jenna and Josh enter the central tent to find Debby, Beatrice, and May from Comms already there. 

Debby does a once over on the two of them, Jenna lost track of who was taking care of who among the three of them that were left. “Now that we are all here, May, do you want to read the note?” 

She nods, “We sent a correspondence at 1300 containing the script ‘_ Inquiry’ _ in black ink and _ further proof is required. ‘Who do you wish to meet with,’ _ in yellow ink. At 1530 we received a response. In black text it read ‘ _ Understood.’ _ In yellow text the note continued, _ ‘This is a scribe for the Bishop. Keons will be present at the meeting, he requests the presence of Joshua and Jenna.’ _The note ended with the handwritten signature in black ink of Keons, confirmed to be authentic by Comm Team Alpha 2.” 

Jenna can feel her heart in her throat. 

“So it’s him,” Beatrice says. 

“Best we can figure, there is no evidence to suggest any of this had been forged.” May finishes. 

“Thanks, May. You can go back to your tent now,” Debby says kindly. 

May nods and leaves the Central tent. 

It’s silent even after May leaves, Jenna can’t take her eyes off the note lying on the table.

“Sun sets in three hours,” Debby says. 

Josh looks over at Jenna. She was the one who needed to be convinced. 

Nothing makes sense, still. 

“Okay. So let’s lay it all out.” Josh says, still looking at Jenna, she meets his eyes and sees the unspoken question. She nods, she will tell them about her visions. 

Josh starts, “Tyler was returned to us, with a note saying _ don’t let him be gone _. Through it we confirmed that Keons is how he got here.”

“We don’t know why,” Beatrice says. 

“Right,” Josh continues, “and Tyler isn’t really, _ dying? _Is he?” 

“He’s still stagnant,” Beatrice says. 

“I have seen him, throughout the day I’ve been getting these flashes of him that I can’t explain. I’ll see him through his perspective,” Jenna says. 

“What do you mean? Like memories?” Debby asks. 

She shakes her head, “It’s more like my hands are his, like I’m in his body...now,” Jenna holds her breath watching the two others’ faces. Debby and Beatrice seemed like they needed more explanation, “I didn’t think it was anything, just weird hallucinations or something. But Josh and I found things that are significant to us and Tyler not at all where we left them,” Jenna says. 

Debby and Beatrice look to Josh, “She’s right, my balaclava Tyler gave me was out on the desk. It was stowed in the bottom of the cabinet,” Josh is looking at Debby. 

Debby nods. Beatrice doesn’t look as confused anymore. Jenna lets out a breath. 

“So there is something bigger at play here, right? It’s not illogical to think that,” Josh says. 

“Like what?” Beatrice asks.

“I don’t know, but the Bishops obviously have some sort of power. I think Keons might have some answers.” Josh crosses his arms as he says it. 

  
  


Jenna has completely forgotten, because of all that’s happened today: “I had a dream with Tyler, too.” The room turns back to her, “At first it was just memories of him, then we were sitting at the fire out in the middle of camp and we were talking. It was like a lucid dream, I was speaking to him and asking him questions about how he isn’t decaying. He said he was ‘figuring it out’, it seemed like he knew as much as we did. But he’s somewhere, I think. He’s somewhere.”

She turns to Josh who’s looking at her with disbelief and tangible hope, “He said hello.” 

Tears form in Josh’s eyes. 

She can’t believe she forgot this, the only hope she had. Tyler had spoken to her, he isn’t gone yet, he is _ somewhere. _

“We need to go to that meeting.” Jenna says with finality.

Josh nods. Debby and Beatrice agree. 

  
  


**7:37 PM **

Jenna and Josh left camp soon after their meeting with Debby and Beatrice. They weren’t taking anyone with them, but the Lookout team at Post 4 was on high alert and so were the other three Lookouts. 

They had no idea what to expect from this meeting. No amount of letters or confirmation could make the idea of this meeting sit right in anyone’s stomach. 

Debby walked them to the edge of camp, it was hard not to miss how tightly she held Josh before they left. But she didn’t let any tears fall. 

Jenna got her own tight hug from Debby as well, it only made her feel better marginally. 

  
  


They spent a while at Lookout 4 since they got there before sunset. They watched with the Lookout team for anything coming but found nothing. 

Then the sun started to creep down in the sky. 

“It’s time,” Jenna says, and the two of them descend into Trench.

  
  
  


Josh holds the torch to the dark cave under the post. The orange-pink light of the sun was too dim to fully illuminate the ground anymore, leaving the surrounding, normally green terrain of Trench an erie almost-black. 

“No one’s here, yet,” Josh says. Jenna turns from looking out into the valley to Josh. 

She had never been in this cave, but as they move into it they find it fairly shallow. There is some evidence of previous dwellers: a small fire pit made of uncut stone in the center, larger stones surround the fire meant to be seats, and some words drawn on the wall in what looks to be black paint. 

“I bet the old Banditos came here,” Jenna said. The cave wasn’t on any clear path out of the City she knew of, but maybe it used to be. 

Josh has made the fire pit usable again and lit it with the torch flame, it lights the cave up significantly. He brings the torch over to where she stands. 

“Paint’s black, bet it was busted by the Bishops,” he says. Josh hands the torch to Jenna. 

The paint reads several things, some of which make no sense without context, some say _ East is Up or We denounce Vialism, _some of it Jenna recognizes as old rebel slogans the Banditos didn’t adopt. 

Josh, Tyler, and Jenna weren’t the first people to leave the City, just the first in a long, long time. After all, Tyler and Josh found their way out by following clues that the old rebels left behind. They adopted the name, some of the slogans, the remains of their camp, and some very helpful information and the Banditos as they are today were born. 

“Sun’s almost down. Where is he?” Josh has taken a seat on one of the stones surrounding the fire. Jenna continues to examine the writing on the cave wall. Most of it is more of what she’s already found, but then she sees something interesting: _ Follow the prophecy. It will guide us to a new day. _

“Hey Josh, what do you think this means—” 

“Jenna.” His voice is tight and urgent. 

She turns around, there are two Chosen standing at the mouth of the cave. Her stomach clenches. Josh stands. 

Jenna is about to say something when the Chosen on the left opens their mouth. 

“Keons thanks you for being here, Joshua and Jenna.” 

“Where is he?” Josh asks. 

“He will be here shortly,” the Chosen on the right says. 

Jenna walks over to stand next to Josh. The Chosen do not move from their position at the mouth of the cave. 

“Kinda feel like I might have been right this morning,” Jenna whispers to Josh. 

He looks at her and nods. It wasn’t great, being trapped in a cave by two Chosen. 

A few moments later, the sun has now almost completely set, a dark figure comes up behind the Chosen. 

The Chosen pivot to face each other, and the dark figure enters the cave. 

Whatever stomach-clench Jenna had when the Chosen arrived, doubles—no, triples. 

The figure moves into the light of Josh’s fire pit and the torch. It is Keons, in full red-robed and veiled regalia. 

He stands a few inches taller than both his Chosen behind him. The sky outside the cave seems blacker than black with his crimson figure in front of it. Shadows cast over the rim of the hood and veil so his face is completely shrouded in darkness. 

Keons reaches his hands up to his hood and begins to lower it. 

——

Tyler looks at this old, familiar forest floor sideways with disdain. He checks his pulse, there is nothing there.

He wanted to go. He chose to go. He shouldn’t still be here. 

(Even if he didn’t know what _ here _was, he was sure it isn’t the Afterlife.) 

Tyler thinks about talking directly to whatever was doing this, trying to get some real answers. 

“I don’t get it, I don’t understand. In the car, I said I wanted to go. The three beings said I didn’t have to come back, what changed?” He asks the sky after standing up. 

He hears a great wind pass through the treetops, leaves rustle in a comforting way despite his confusion. Then all of a sudden, within the leaves’ rustle Tyler hears words. He hears both the rustle and words, it splits his attention unsettlingly. 

_ We cannot question the Universe, child, simply because the answer would be too complex. It all is as it will be. It has always seemed to me, though, that you are perfectly capable of this. _

Just as he hears this, Tyler is struck with memories. 

He is seven years old and standing in this same forest, it is the early hours of dawn, the sun is peeking out from between the trees. Tyler doesn’t know how he got to this place, at seven he doesn’t recognize it at all. He looks down and sees his shoes on his feet and his nighttime clothes still on. 

Tyler thinks his mother might have mentioned he slept walked, but Tyler wasn’t sure how he got this far. That is the moment which hits the now-dead-Tyler remembering this the hardest: realizing he was beyond the walls of the City. 

Seven-year-old Tyler’s heart rapidly picked up. He looked around furiously for something familiar, but found nothing. In the midst of his panic, the wind picked up, a leaf flew toward him and hit his cheek. It wasn’t fall so the leaf was green and soft and remained on his cheek drying a tear Tyler hadn’t realized was there. 

He thought of his mother wiping her thumb across his cheek. 

The leaf flew off and Tyler followed it. It led him back to the City. Just before Tyler reentered through a tunnel he had never noticed before, he turned around. The forest line was several yards away from him, Tyler wanted to go back. 

_ Not yet, child, _younger Tyler heard in his mind. 

  
  


Then the memory changes. Tyler is older, sixteen. 

It had been a few years since his sleepy feet took him to the forest. He woke up there a few times after the first but it wasn’t long until he told his mother about it. Nico found out soon after, the Bishop had kept such a close eye on Tyler during his youth it was a miracle he ever made it out of the walls. Tyler was then Cleansed of the memories of his sleepwalking. 

Several precautions were put in place afterwards, to assure Tyler wouldn’t leave his room when he slept. Two Chosen had been stationed outside his room at night for a year, then when it was deemed unnecessary because he hadn’t done anything in so long, the Chosen left. Even when they were gone, Tyler hadn’t woken up anywhere but his bed. 

Except for this night. 

Sixteen-year-old Tyler now stands breathless in the forest, thinking only of what will happen when he returns. Birds chirp and Tyler hears, _ Welcome back, child. It has been too long since we met. _

“Who are you?” 

_ Do you not remember the leaf? The mornings you woke up here inexplicably? You have always known who I am. _

“No, I—I don’t.” 

_ I am the Universe, I am trying to guide you on your way. Please, open your mind and your heart, child. _

Tyler turns on his heel and runs for the City. He is too afraid of Nico and the punishment for leaving. The odd voice in the forest is probably just in his head, anyway. 

That day, Tyler was cleansed of all his memories of the forest and sleepwalking by Nico. 

The memory shifts again: Tyler has broken out of the City. He knew the exact way to go but couldn’t explain to Josh how he did. When they were out and whooping and hollering about their freedom, they entered the forest. The leaves rustled and a voice filled Tyler’s head. _ Congratulations on your escape, child. You have always known the way. Remain with this one you bring, he will guide you as I have. _

“Did you hear that?” Tyler asks Josh. 

Josh smile fell a bit, “No?”

Tyler shakes his head and motions Josh forward. He pushed the thought of it to the back of his mind. 

The next memories come faster, it’s every time he led Banditos through the forest, every envoy, every escape he led trekking through. Except, Tyler sees it like he is watching from the view of the treetops, then he sees another high angle but in fast motion as if he were flying over it, then he sees only boots pass, like he was apart of the forest floor. 

  
  


The memories end. Dead Tyler now stands alone in the forest. 

Those memories were not there when Tyler was alive, he’s sure. But they are true, he knows them to be, he can feel it. Nico took them, the forest has given them back. 

“You have been here the whole time?” Tyler asked. 

A large black object swoops down in front of him and lands at his feet. It’s a vulture, and as Tyler looks more closely he recognizes it as Clifford, the vulture who lives at camp. 

_ Yes, _ Tyler hears all at once in his head. _ We are your guide. _Clifford starts walking away from Tyler. 

He follows Clifford into the forest. 

“Who’s we?” He asks as they walk. 

Clifford flaps his wings and in the sound Tyler hears, _ The forest, the bird, even the cheetah, we all are guides from the Universe to help you along your way. _

Eventually, they reach a small pond Tyler recognizes as the place he’d always stop with envoys if he was leaving the City. 

Clifford pecks down at the water and Tyler thinks he might be taking a drink like he has seen him do before. But Clifford looks back at Tyler and cocks his head when Tyler doesn’t move. The vulture pecks at the water again. Tyler realizes Clifford wants him to look into the water. 

At first he doesn’t see anything, just his own reflection, but he focuses more and sees dark wisps that could be fish. As he focuses on those an image appears to him: three figures. They come into more form and Tyler sees Jenna and Josh, then he feels a jolt when he recognizes the third as a Bishop with them. 

_ It is alright, pay attention. They are not in danger. _Tyler hears this from the babbling brook which feeds into the pond. 

He does so and sees them stand around a small fire in a cave, talking. 

——

Keons takes off his shroud and his hood. 

Jenna sees a man, his face is covered in paint, the top half in white, from the nose down in black. But other than that, his face is normal. There are no glowing eyes or gnashing teeth that the children’s scary rumors led all the citizens to believe. 

“You’re just a man,” Jenna says without thinking. 

He smiles, _ smiles, _ it unsettles Jenna though he isn’t doing it maliciously, she thinks. “Yes, it surprised me, as well.” He must see the confused look on both of their faces because he makes a _ tsk _sound and says, “A story for another time.” 

Jenna has only heard Keons speak a few times, Nico was her Bishop. Keons’ voice was not the rough grate Nico’s was. It was fairly normal, just as his face was. Maybe it was Trench, perhaps when the Bishops were out of the City, off their cement and neon throne, they were just people. 

“You both look very tired, please sit.” Keons motions to the stones. Jenna and Josh exchange a glance and do so. Keons follows suit. “It is unimaginable how you must be feeling in the wake of his absence. I’m deeply sorry.” 

Keon’s kindness shocked Jenna, and from the looks of it Josh as well. She didn’t know what to say to him. 

“Thank you,” she tries it out on her tongue. Iti;s clumsy and unsure. 

Keons continues, “There is much to be explained at this meeting. But I’m afraid we do not have unlimited time. Obviously, being here is a risk, I have lied to say I am traveling to capture back one of my citizens.” 

Even hearing the situation as a lie makes Jenna’s stomach turn. Of course they were aware that banditos were stolen in the night by their Bishops, it was rare but not uncommon, especially if they were a particular nuisance to the City. (Like Tyler, Jenna, and Josh have been.) But hearing Keons say it so casually felt wrong. 

“I’m afraid you will have to get the abridged version of our long story,” Keons finishes. 

“Why are you on our side?” The question fires out of Josh. Jenna can feel his agitation. 

“I could never be on the City’s side. From the day it began, I realized how wrong it was. But I knew that Nico had too much power and he couldn’t be dismantled by just me. So I lied in wait. I reluctantly learned the ways of Vialism and the Bishops but invented my own ways to fabricate the effects. None of my citizens were ever harmed by me. If they passed it was due to Nico’s prodding or one of the other Nine’s. Or unfortunate circumstances beyond our control.” 

“How did they not suspect you?” Jenna asks. 

“They did. Nico had suspicions early on and came to watch me Cleanse a citizen. My fabrications then were believable but not so when you were in the room. I was prepared to be Disrobed and killed in this Cleansing, but as I performed my false Cleansing, Nico was fully convinced. He left me to my own devices after that. That night I heard a voice in my head that said to me: _ We have protected you. You have begun a fight against the Darkness and We will protect you from here on in.” _

“Who was it?” Josh asked this time. 

“I came to know this voice as the Universe. It has spoken to me several times, giving me guidance, helping me find your clever spies and your camp. It is the only reason my resistance has been so successful,” Keons says. “It is what told me to bring Tyler back to you two.” 

“What makes the Universe think we can save him?” Josh asks.

“I’m afraid I’ve left out an important detail. But it would be easier to show you, rather than tell you,” Keons holds out his hands to Josh and Jenna. 

Keons’ eyes are closed and both Josh and Jenna hesitate. Jenna looks over at Josh, he’s scared, she can almost feel it herself. But she nods. Finally, they both lay a palm on top of his. 

They are thrust into a memory, watching it from a third party’s point of view. 

——

Just as Tyler sees Josh and Jenna take Keons’ hands he, too is submerged into this memory. 

====

The interior of the Tower is dark grey, the color seems to leech any sound or warmth from the walls. Even drenched in the heavy, red robe, Keons is chilled to the bone as he walks down the hall to the convocation room. 

The memory blurs and refocuses, Keons and Nico are in the Tower’s convocation room. 

“The City grows each day,” Nico drawls. “It can be a fragile balance, maintaining such power.” 

“Absolutely. But it does not seem to trouble you greatly, Esteemed,” Keons says. 

Nico makes a _ hm _noise and taps the table he sits at, “Yes, but it would be much easier,” he hesitates, “to keep an eye on things, if we were to know what would happen next.” 

“How so?” 

“Deep in the Doctrines of Vialism I have read of a way to create an Oracle. It will tell us of any threats to the City’s power.” Nico turns his head to Keons, “It requires the power of two Bishops to conjure. You have proven yourself incredibly worthy, my dear Keons. You will be the one to help me. But your secrecy is key, none of the other Bishops can know of this.” 

The memory blurs and refocuses again and Keons and Nico stand over a small, free floating, pool of silver liquid which overflows onto the floor. 

They raise their hands around it and Nico calls out, “Show us what is to come, oh Oracle.” 

The liquid falling into the floor becomes smoke as soon as it reaches the concrete. After Nico speaks the smoke rises and circles the whole room. It winds around the two figures and nearly fills up the space. Then whispers fill the ears of the two Bishops. They sound as if they are made of a hundred different, overlapping voices, but they all convey the same message:

_ The one with the power to make Nine none, _

_ to overturn the Towers to noise, _

_ is born as the twelfth month begins, _

_ He will deny It thrice, _

_ He will recognize the other as his greatest adversary. _

_ If it is to end, he must perish at the hands of _

_ the enemy _.

The smoke gently fell to the floor and gradually began to dissipate away.

Nico angirly drove out his hands and an invisible force knocked over the pool, it sent the silver liquid spilling out onto the floor. The spilled liquid in the pool became smoke, joining what was already dissipating. 

Nico commanded Keons to leave in his rage. As soon as Keons exited the room, he could hear the whispers again. Though the walls were too thick to hear much, he still strained to hear what he could. 

He wasn’t able to make out much except the harsh sound of the whispers’ consonants. 

The whispers end, then Keons hears the voice of the Universe in his head. _ Nico will destroy the Prophecy, including the second half you have missed. You must search for a way to recover it. We will guide you. _

The memory blurs and refocuses. 

Keons and Nico stand in the convocation room again. 

“The boy is growing in some kind of power, if his escapes are any indication,” Keons says. 

“He is not nearly formidable yet,” Nico amends. 

“So he is meant to grow in power, only to die when he is most powerful?” 

“The Prophecy tells that I will recognize him as my greatest enemy. I have not yet.” 

“But—”

“If you have an issue with my methods concerning the boy, I am more than willing to shadow your District’s happenings again.” Nico’s voice cuts like a knife into the air. 

Keons recognizes the threat. He merely shakes his head. 

Blur. Refocus. 

Tyler is being Cleansed by Nico, Keons is in the room. 

“Do you remember what made your soul Dirty?” Nico asks. 

Usually after a Cleansing, citizens have blank eyes and sluggish movements. But Tyler sits upright in the chair, fully alert, as if it never happened. 

“No, I remember nothing,” Tyler says, voice straining for blankness.

Blur. Refocus. 

“He’s lying!” Nico yells to Keons in the now empty Cleansing chambers. 

“Perhaps the time the Prophecy indicated draws near,” Keons suggests. 

“Yes. I must kill the boy soon.” 

“I know it is foretold by the Oracle, but Esteemed, why is it him? Is he not just a boy?” Keons asks. 

“Just a _ boy _ ? Can you not feel the power in him? There is a reason he ran to that blasted forest so much as a child, why he can resist the Cleansing. The Universe lives inside him. While he is alive the power of Vialism is threatened. Dema will fall if I alone do not kill him.” Nico rages. “ _ He must die. _” Each word is its own statement, Nico’s voice sounds like thunder crashing. 

“And his followers?” Keons asks. 

“They will surely follow him down, without a leader they are nothing but lost children. The City will call them home in his wake,” his voice is a low rumble. 

“And what if they don’t?” Keons asks. 

Nico is obviously fed up with Keons’ questions but still he says, “Then we will kill them as well.” 

Blur. Refocus. 

Keons waits outside the room where Nico kills Tyler. 

Two of Keon’s Chosen approach him, then. 

“Has it all been arranged?” Keons asks. 

One Chosen nods. Pats a pocket on his coat. The other Chosen pats a pocket on their coat. 

The door opens and two of Nico’s Chosen, preceding Nico himself exit, carrying Tyler on a stretcher. 

“Dispose of him,” Nico says shortly and vanishes down the hall. 

The body is passed to Keons’ Chosen and Nico’s follow their Bishop. 

Once they are alone again, Keons puts a hand to Tyler’s forehead then covers him with the sheet covering the rest of his still form. 

He says, “Go.” 

The Chosen leave. 

===

The memory fades to black and then ends. 

Jenna and Josh open their eyes. 

——

Tyler falls back away from the pool. His head spins. Words like _ oracle _ and _ die _ and _ prophecy _spin around and around his thoughts, their fundamental meanings and how they apply to him are a hurricane in his mind. 

He staggers and falls to the ground. 

He was _ supposed _to die. That was the deal, from the very beginning. 

Keons is a good Bishop. That thought troubles him a lot, he can’t put together ‘Bishop’ and ‘good’ in any way that makes sense. 

“I don’t—I don’t get it,” he says. Tyler’s breathing heavily. 

A great wind sweeps through the treetops:_ you have seen the reason for all of this, the purpose. _

Tyler’s back is against the forest floor, his elbows prop him up, he sees the tree tops shake in the wind. 

Reason? Purpose? Tyler didn’t feel anything like that in those visions. He feels like a means to an end. He feels like a pawn. 

But he can’t tell who the player is: Nico or the Universe. 

The ground rumbles under his back _ Child— _

“_ No _!” Tyler leaps up, “There's no purpose! I just died, that’s it! No punchline, just death.” 

Clifford squawks near him, _ You do not see what lies beyond this. How the Universe is to help you— _

“Help me?” He shouts and sits up fully, “Why didn’t you help me when I was dying? Or in the City? I could have killed Nico then, it would have been a lot easier! Now Josh and Jenna are in danger!” 

Bugs somewhere far off buzz, _ You were not ready. The Universe could not force you to do something you do not wish to do, it is against Nature. _

He lets out the residual anger in his chest through a sigh, “I’m not ready now,” Tyler says.

It’s eerily silent for a moment, as if everything in the forest took some time to gather their thoughts. 

The water babbles, _ Do you wish to know how I am convinced of your capability, Child? _

“Yes.” The word falls off Tyler’s lips like he is begging. 

The voice he hears is not in the form of any sounds, it just is in his head, as if the forest leaned in to tell him a secret: 

_ Every being is a Child of the Universe, in an abstract sense. The Universe gives all life. But you were born in the presence of full light and belief in the Universe’s power. Your mother was a true believer. Even if your own belief faltered, you were born with her own sewn in your bones. It’s Power flows through your veins, because of her. In every sense you are a Child of the Universe. The last and only. _

“Why did you reach out to Keons?” 

_ Keons is a true believer. Also the last and only, depending on how Joshua and Jenna react to his story. _

“They were just stories though, my mother just told me stories,” Tyler couldn’t wrap his head around it, still: his importance, the odd magic the Universe seemed to be. 

Just _ stories? Stories, Child, are everything. They are the fabric of the Universe, they are the thread that ties it all together, the needle which weaves existence. They are the past, present, and future. Stories are everything, humans are full of them, you should know this. _

——

No one in the cave speaks for a while after the vision ends. 

Then Keons does.

“Jenna you believe all this?” 

“I-uh, yes. I think. I’ve seen Tyler in visions throughout the day. I think he is somewhere, not gone. With everything you showed us, it’s starting to make sense,” she works it all out aloud. 

Keons nods, “His faith in you is not misplaced. Neither his love.” 

Jenna’s eyes burn with tears. She doesn’t let them fall.

Keons turns to look at Josh, “Joshua, you are skeptical.”

He is taken aback a little, then steels himself, “Yeah. I mean, the Universe? A prophecy? How can this be real? It’s a little...” he trails off nervously. 

“Absurd?” Keons suggests. 

Josh nods. 

“This is understandable. You have been hurt greatly these last two days. You fear getting hopeful to see him again only to be disappointed. But you are here, still. You are the one who pushed Jenna to come. In City fear was your enemy, Joshua. You have led yourself to believe you have been defeated by it since Tyler died. But you neglect to realize that you have acted incredibly courageously. You forget the tree on your arm.” 

Josh’s face is blank. Jenna can tell he is struck by how accurately Keons has pinned him down. 

“What is the greatest ally of fear?” Keons asks. 

“The unknown,” Jenna says. 

He nods, “Vialism was created as a way to harness the powers the Universe gave to some individuals to do evil. It abuses Its power of creation to compel destruction. Before the Nine in the City there were others, you know. But Nico is the most powerful Bishop in all Vialism’s history.” 

“So Tyler is the opposite? The most powerful…” Jenna tries to find the right word, “what would you even call it?” 

“I do not know if there _ is _a name for it. But yes, Tyler is Nico’s foil. His greatest adversary,” Keons says. 

“So you’re going to find the second part of the prophecy?” Josh asks. 

“That is my task. Hopefully it will provide a path to an out for us.” 

Just as Keons says this, The Chosen at the mouth of the cave start at the sound of something far off. 

——

Tyler lays again on the forest floor trying to absorb the Universe’s words in his head. Clifford squawks loudly next to him. He ignores it, the feeling of hearing the vulture squawk while he does not pay attention to him is so familiar. It was almost like a thousand lazy days at camp, staring at the wide blue sky. 

Tyler sits up rapidly when he realizes Clifford’s squawks did not sound like the Universe’s words. 

He sat still and listened and heard leaves rustle and the bugs buzz but not a single word in the forest noise. 

Then the sounds become slightly more intense: the trees shake, clouds above he hadn’t noticed yet seem to pulse and shift like a storm is brewing. 

Clifford has walked over to peck his foot and get his attention. Tyler follows him back to the pool. 

In it, he sees the landscape of Trench just outside the cave Josh, Jenna, and Keons are in. It makes his heart ache for a second, the rolling hills and dark green of it all. But it quickly ends when he notices a white horse bolting toward the cave, a stark red robed figure on its back. 

Nico is coming. He is still far away, there is time for them to escape. 

Tyler turns to the vulture, “Clifford, we have to help them. How? Can we talk to them?” 

Clifford cocks his head and pecks a rock, it falls down the edge of the pool to the lower ground. Tyler is confused until he looks up and realizes the direction it went: East. 

——

The Chosen at the mouth of the cave hear a noise in the night. They both stir and look for the source. 

The Chosen on the left finds a small tower of rocks toppled over in an oddly straight line. 

Jenna, Josh, and Keons come to see what the noise was and see the rocks. 

“It’s pointed East,” Keons says. 

——

Tyler sees them find the toppled rock tower, but they don’t understand it. 

“There has to be something else,” Tyler says. He looks up at the sky, the churning clouds, the shaking trees. “Please. I have to help them. Please help them.” 

There is still no audible response but a leaf slips around Tyler’s head and flies rapidly away from the pool. He follows it. 

The leaf leads him to a small clearing a few feet away where a large rock stands. It is covered in black writing, Tyler recognizes it as the wall from the cave Josh and Jenna are in. 

A small bowl made of a thin rock sits in front of it, in it is yellow paint. 

Tyler picks up the bowl and begins to write.

——

Jenna, Josh, and Keons stand in a circle debating what the rocks mean when Josh notices a small movement in the corner of his eye. 

He looks again and sees yellow paint appear over the black writing on the cave wall. 

“Look,” he says, mostly to Jenna, since Keons can’t read it. 

He says, “It’s yellow paint on the cave wall, it’s just appearing and writing a message,” to Keons. 

_ Nico is coming. Leave the cave quickly. East is up. _

“We have to go,” Jenna says. 

Keons stops and closes his eyes, “Nico is near.” 

“What are you going to do?” Josh asks Keons.

“I will figure something out, Joshua. Do not worry. You both must go. Hide with your friends above, do not attempt to return to camp until you are sure we have made it far enough away,” he says urgently. 

Keons walks then to the wall the yellow writing is on, though it’s invisible to him he places a hand against it. 

“Thank you, Tyler.” 

——

Tyler sees a white handprint appear on the rock over his message. 

_ Thank you, Tyler. _Keons voice fills his head. 

The forest and the memories and seeing him with Josh and Jenna all do not make his voice seem scary anymore. It’s almost nice, he feels a sense of camaraderie instead. 

Tyler places a hand on top of the print and closes his eyes. 

For a moment he feels the rock, he feels a hand. He keeps his eyes closed, he couldn’t open them if he wanted to. 

——

Keons feels Tyler’s hand on his palm after a moment. He smiles. 

When he lifts his hand, Jenna sees the place where he left it had become yellow. As if Keons painted his palm and pressed to the cave wall. 

“We must go,” Keons says. “Joshua and Jenna, good luck to you both. The Universe will bring us together again. I will be in contact with you about the prophecy soon.” 

They both nod at him. Keons smiles back. 

He turns away and lifts his veil and hood, and follows his Chosen into the night. 

Josh puts out the fire and the torch when Keons turns away. They leave the mouth of the cave second after Keons and the Chosen and use the darkness and hidden path they took down to the cave to escape to Lookout 4 unseen.

* * *

_ The one with the power to make Nine none, _

_ to overturn the Towers to noise, _

_ is born as the twelfth month begins, _

_ He will deny It thrice, _

_ He will recognize the other as his greatest adversary. _

_ If it is to end, he must perish at the hands of _

_ the enemy _.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @chlorineacoustic on tumblr if you want to chat!

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on tumblr @chlorineacoustic to yell about this w/ me!!  
I'm also on pinterest at the same @, if you wanna see aesthetics that have inspired this!
> 
> kudos/comment/bookmark if u would slime tyler joseph


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